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The University of the Free State (UFS) has cemented its place as a leading institution on the continent and in the world, according to the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2023. The UFS emerged in the 801-1 000 range of this prestigious ranking, which includes 1 799 institutions from across 104 countries – the largest and most diverse university rankings to date. This is the UFS’ first entry in the THE’s top university rankings, joining some of the world’s best universities.

The rankings assess institutions across the globe based on performance indicators such as teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international outlook.

The UFS is among the top nine South African universities on the THE list, which was released on 12 October 2022. The institution is ranked in the same band as the University of Pretoria and Rhodes University but is overall listed higher than both institutions, earning a coveted ninth spot among the 15 South African universities featuring in the rankings. According to the list released by THE, the UFS further occupies the 801-1 000 band with international institutions such as Chapman University in the United States, the University of Bedfordshire in the United Kingdom, and Chengdu University in China.

The UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen, welcomed the institution’s ranking. “The outcome of the THE World Rankings is in line with the university’s Vision 130, of which academic excellence, quality, and impact is one of the key principles. The university aims to continually participate in global ranking systems that measure the academic standing of the institution for benchmarking and visibility as well as to reflect on progress over time. Rankings provide insight that helps set our university’s trajectory for the future.”

“Vision 130 is an elaboration of the UFS’ strategic intent to reposition the institution for 2034, when the institution will commemorate its 130^th anniversary. Our goal is to be ranked by appropriate chosen global ranking systems among the top five universities in South Africa and among the top 600 globally by 2034,” says Prof Petersen.

Although this is the UFS’ first time joining the rankings, the institution received an overall score of 29.8-33.9, and ratings of 18.1 for teaching, 17.6 for research, 49.4 for citations, 40.1 for industry income, and 47.3 for international overlook. Institutions were measured across 13 separate performance categories, providing the most comprehensive report of excellence among world-class research universities.

“Being part of the top 1 000 universities in the world is a positive indication that the UFS is moving in the right direction towards achieving its vision of becoming a centre for academic excellence, quality, and impact; effecting maximum societal impact with sustainable relationships; and emerging as a diverse, inclusive, and equitable university,” says Prof Petersen.

The UFS was also recently ranked in ShanghaiRanking's Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) for 2022, which were published in August 2022. The university secured a spot in the 901-1 000 band globally, and a joint 8-9 position in South Africa, together with UNISA. The ARWU rates institutions based on alumni and staff who have won Nobel prizes and Felds medals, highly cited researchers, papers published in Nature and Science, papers indexed in major citation indices, and the per capita academic performance of an institution.

In total, more than 2 500 universities were ranked, and the best 1 000 were published. This was only the second time that the UFS had participated in this ranking.